As the Cavaliers look to fill out the roster and surround LeBron James with enough veteran talent to make a legitimate run at a title in the upcoming season, Ray Allen‘s name continues to be mentioned — even though we have no idea whether or not he’s decided on returning to play next season.

Nothing has changed there, at least on the surface. But the latest report has Cleveland feeling good about its chances of luring Allen to once again team up with James in a championship-contending situation.

The Cavs are also optimistic about their chances of signing free agent guard Ray Allen prior to the start of training camp, a source said.

This may be one of those situations where Allen waits as long as possible before committing, just to ensure that he’s truly all in on coming back to play in what would be his 19th NBA season.

It’s worth noting that despite this report, it’s far from certain that he’ll choose to do so — especially when considering just how content he seemed so recently with the idea that he had already played his last game.

Ensemble teams like this make me wonder; what’s the ultimate ‘If They Were All In Their Prime’ team? Because if Marion, Ray Allen, and Mike Miller were in their prime this would be an unstoppable all-star team. You could probably say that about a lot of teams… but which one would be best?

Some 80s Lakers team were pretty stacked and deep. Don’t feel like researching it too much, but i’ll just pick the 86 lakers since that was around the height of the close Celtics/Lakers rivalry. They Magic, Kareem, and Worthy-HOFers. Byron Scott played 14 years and was a 20ppg scorer and good 3pt shooter during his prime. AC Green 16 seasons, iron man, almost 10,000 boards. Michael Cooper- 12 seasons, 8-time NBA All-Defensive. Mychal Thompson peaked at 20/12, got MVP votes and was at least a 15/7 guy for 7 seasons. Frank Brickowski started 400 games over 12 seasons, double digit career scoring. Plus Kurt Rambis.

Even Magic’s rookie year, in addition to Kareem they had Spencer Haywood, Norm Nixon, and Jamaal Wilkes. Those guys all had All-Star peaks with MVP votes.

How about the 1960 Celtics? I counted 7 HOFers before I got tired and stopped counting.

The 03/04 Lakers came to Philly on a cold February night. Tickets cost a lot of money. Bryant and Malone didn’t play, Shaq got in early foul trouble and Payton was thrown out of the game in the second quarter.
The Sixers won by 30 but not any fans went home happy.